


it all ends in quiet

by itachitachi



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Angst, Exhibitionism, M/M, Team Gluttony
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-12
Updated: 2011-08-12
Packaged: 2017-10-22 13:18:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 753
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/238439
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/itachitachi/pseuds/itachitachi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><a href="http://community.livejournal.com/kinkme_merlin/9322.html?thread=5545066#t5545066">Everyone in Camelot suddenly vanishes and Arthur and Merlin are the only ones left</a>, from Kinkme_Merlin. An empty Camelot is a bleak place. (Written but not submitted for Summer Pornathon's kink meme challenge, 2010.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	it all ends in quiet

"Shit," Arthur says, looking around the throne room. "Shit, shit."

"Cursing won't make this any better," Merlin says, peering out one of the hall's stained glass windows.

"But what will?" Arthur snaps, beginning to pace. "Nothing you've tried has worked either. Plain old swearing will have just as much effect as your stupid spells."

"I didn't say you couldn't do it, just that it wouldn't change anything." Merlin wanders to another window and looks out on the courtyard from a different angle. Arthur doesn't know why he bothers changing perspective; he can't imagine that the crucial element has changed. Everyone in Camelot is still missing.

"Why aren't you panicking?" Arthur asks suddenly. "You didn't _expect_ something like this, did you?" And then, with dawning horror, "Did _you_ do this?!"

"What?!" Merlin asks, gaze snapping from the view outside to Arthur. "Are you insane? Why would I want to make the entirety of Camelot vanish?"

"You're the evil sorcerer," Arthur says, mouth tight, "you tell me."

Merlin gapes at him for one moment, two, before his brows draw down and he pushes away from the window, ducking past Arthur to escape out into the silence of the corridor.

"There's no one to go complain to, Merlin," Arthur shouts after him.

*

Arthur doesn't see Merlin for the rest of that day or the next, or even the one after. Instead he wanders about the castle aimlessly, chasing imagined whispers down dusty corridors and searching for even the tiniest flicker of life. The closest he comes is finding a mouse, which he leaves alone, and by then he's so sick of the silence that he can't help but seek out Merlin's room.

When he finds him, Merlin has dark rings around his eyes, like he hasn't slept at all. And perhaps he hasn't; he's got Gaius's books pulled off their shelves, and is poring through their pages as if he'll be able to find a cure for solitude.

"I shouldn't have said that to you," Arthur says, because it's been itching at him. He normally wouldn't have apologized, but Merlin is—oh god—Merlin is the only person he has left in the world.

"You were angry," Merlin says, waving it off. He looks exhausted, more dead on his feet than alive. Arthur drags him away from the books, away from the things that have been draining away at him, and they curl up together in Merlin's cramped bed, in Merlin's messy, circular room that is like a world all its own.

*

They fuck.

There's nothing else to do, and there's no one to see them. They fuck in Merlin's room, all elbows and knees banging against each other, the covers tangled up around them. They fuck in Arthur's room, on top of the red sheets, with the door wide open. They fuck against castle walls and they fuck on the battlements, staring out at the lifeless city.

One day, Merlin strips Arthur bare in the middle of the empty courtyard. Arthur stands there naked, feeling the cobblestones press their shapes into the soles of his feet, as Merlin goes to his knees and sucks him. He curls tender fingers in Merlin's hair and stares up into the open sky.

They almost fuck in the throne room, once, because Merlin mentions he's always wanted to try it, but Arthur can't look at the great heavy chair without his breath souring horribly in his lungs. So they fuck out in the hall against the doors, instead.

*

One day they leave Camelot, making for the nearest village. But they don't find people when they get there, so they keep going, to the next empty village, and the next, until they finally reach Ealdor. It's as cold and barren as all the others.

"I need a minute," Merlin says unsteadily, pressing his forehead to the door of the dark house where his mother is supposed to be.

Arthur puts his hand to Merlin's trembling back, and neither of them says anything when Merlin turns away from the door without opening it.

*

They might have wandered forever, but in the end they turn back to Camelot. There's nowhere else, really. Not for Arthur, and therefore, not for Merlin.

A miracle hasn't happened while they were away. The town is somehow even emptier than it was before. The throne is gathering dust.

*

"My people are gone, Merlin," Arthur says, shuddering against Merlin's skin. "They're gone, they're all gone—"

Merlin strokes his hair and rocks him, and then they are both silent.


End file.
